Swedish Day
by Thomas Wilson Shawcross 15 May 1005
When I moved to Michigan in January of 1975, I was impressed by the diversity of the people that lived in the Detroit area, and the fact that every week of every summer there was a different "ethnic festival" held downtown along the riverfront.
One weekend a month, I was required to be at Selfridge Air Force Base and be "Captain Shawcross." (I was in the Air National Guard for nine years). One such weekend, I heard some of my fellow National Guard officers, whom I did not yet know very well, discussing the upcoming "Swedish Day." I didn't know there were that many Swedes in the Detroit area, but as I said, the area was culturally and nationally diverse beyond any expectations that I had prior to moving there. One of the guys asked another if he had bought the required chocolates for his wife.
I became curious, so I asked how long the Detroit area had been celebrating "Swedish Day."
"Why, it is a NATIONAL HOLIDAY!," I was told.
They looked at me as if I must be quite simple if I had never heard of Swedish Day.
I assured them that I had occasionally ventured outside my house, read newspapers, etc., but that I had never heard of Swedish Day. In fact, I could state for certain that Swedish Day was not celebrated in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
It was then that one of the guys noticed how I was pronouncing "Swedish Day," and the story began to become clearer. The result was that the "National Holiday" they had been discussing was "Sweetest Day," not "Swedish Day," and that it was not a NATIONAL HOLIDAY, but merely a holiday observed by several states in the Great Lakes region of the US.
The guy that thought Sweetest Day was a National Holiday had never traveled outside the six or seven states where the "holiday" was observed. He honestly believed it was a National Holiday.
This conversation took place nearly thirty years ago, so please forgive me if I have forgotten some of the details, such as how this holiday came into existence. Whatever the origin, the Great Lakes region candy companies have seized upon this opportunity and have bamboozled countless thousands of husbands and boyfriends into buying gift boxes of chocolates for their significant others.
As I recall, one of the Michigan or Ohio chocolate manufacturing companies spent many dollars every year promoting this "holiday." It might have been Sander's Chocolates.
When I moved to Michigan in January of 1975, I was impressed by the diversity of the people that lived in the Detroit area, and the fact that every week of every summer there was a different "ethnic festival" held downtown along the riverfront.
One weekend a month, I was required to be at Selfridge Air Force Base and be "Captain Shawcross." (I was in the Air National Guard for nine years). One such weekend, I heard some of my fellow National Guard officers, whom I did not yet know very well, discussing the upcoming "Swedish Day." I didn't know there were that many Swedes in the Detroit area, but as I said, the area was culturally and nationally diverse beyond any expectations that I had prior to moving there. One of the guys asked another if he had bought the required chocolates for his wife.
I became curious, so I asked how long the Detroit area had been celebrating "Swedish Day."
"Why, it is a NATIONAL HOLIDAY!," I was told.
They looked at me as if I must be quite simple if I had never heard of Swedish Day.
I assured them that I had occasionally ventured outside my house, read newspapers, etc., but that I had never heard of Swedish Day. In fact, I could state for certain that Swedish Day was not celebrated in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.
It was then that one of the guys noticed how I was pronouncing "Swedish Day," and the story began to become clearer. The result was that the "National Holiday" they had been discussing was "Sweetest Day," not "Swedish Day," and that it was not a NATIONAL HOLIDAY, but merely a holiday observed by several states in the Great Lakes region of the US.
The guy that thought Sweetest Day was a National Holiday had never traveled outside the six or seven states where the "holiday" was observed. He honestly believed it was a National Holiday.
This conversation took place nearly thirty years ago, so please forgive me if I have forgotten some of the details, such as how this holiday came into existence. Whatever the origin, the Great Lakes region candy companies have seized upon this opportunity and have bamboozled countless thousands of husbands and boyfriends into buying gift boxes of chocolates for their significant others.
As I recall, one of the Michigan or Ohio chocolate manufacturing companies spent many dollars every year promoting this "holiday." It might have been Sander's Chocolates.
posted by Tom Shawcross | 8:44 PM
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